Another nice long Bank Holiday weekend can only mean one thing, three more matches (and another trio of blogs to write!). Todber was the destination for Saturday and when I exited the car after arriving, despite blue skies, there was still a definite chill in the air and Summer isn’t with us just yet! After a lovely breakfast and getting some bait (and the inevitable bits and bobs) from the shop, it was time for the draw.
Ade confidently predicted Lee Jan would be on 69 and I’d pull out 71, well he was right about the first part and then with just two tickets remaining, I selected one and of course it was 71 (thanks Mystic Ade, can you let me have the lotto numbers next please!).
There were loads of skimmers up in the water again and I thought it might be similar to last Saturday with low double figures enough to frame although on Wednesday it had fished better with weights around 25lb. On the whistle I fed the 13 metre pole line with groundbait before going across on the maggot feeder. After half an hour, I still hadn’t had a bite and with odd fish coming out on the pole, I had a look up the edge where I’d been feeding maggots.
I started getting a few roach but pulled out of several and also lost a half decent skimmer at the net but it already sounded like it was fishing quite hard today. Moving out to 13 metres it took a while to get a bite and I hooked what felt like a nice skimmer only for that one to come off shipping back as well!
As far as I could tell, nobody around me was catching much with the exception of Lee who was beginning to catch some decent skimmers. I had another look short and although I was getting bites, I kept pulling out of fish so switched to yellow hydro which helped and I had several roach and then landed a 2lb+ skimmer. It still wasn’t happening on the longer line with just very occasional fish obliging.
Two more big skimmers and some smaller fish from the inside swim got my hopes up of a strong finish but it seemed to be a case of catching a few and then having to rest it. The trouble was I wasn’t catching anything on any other lines so with around an hour left, I decided to stick with fishing short for the rest of the match. Lee was now bagging up and putting a decent weight together.
I did hook what felt like a big fish but turned out to be a foulhooked skimmer of a pound, with a few minutes to go I had a 1.5lb leaper and then just before the all out, the float sailed away and I missed it! As the scales worked their way up the lake, I went to see what the scores on the doors were, Andy A had done really well on 66 to weigh 26lb before Ade had 16lb 2oz and my nugget was in peril for the second week running. Photo’s courtesy of Todber Manor*
Andy A is never far away and was second this week with 26lb*
Adrian was third with 16lb 2oz*
Lee weighed 26lb 6oz to just pip Andy and would be winning his second match on the bounce and then it was me. I pulled my net out and I knew I wouldn’t be troubling the top two but my 36 fish weighed 15lb 12oz to finish just 6oz shy of Ade and third place. Photo credit – Adrian Dew**
Lee Jan made it two on the trot with a nice net of mainly skimmers for 26lb 6oz*
A rather familiar looking photo with me handing another nugget to Ade who had to give his to Lee. I reckon I won the best hat competition though!**
1 – Lee Jan (Todber) – 26lb 6oz
2 – Andy Akehurst (Todber) – 26lb
3 – Adrian Dew (Todber) – 16lb 2oz
There seem to be lots of recurring themes this week, Lee winning, Ade taking a nugget off me and 6oz the difference between first and second and third and fourth! I seem to be falling just short at the moment and to be honest I haven’t fished a very good match at all, of course everybody misses bites and loses fish but I’ve been drawing my socks off, not getting it right and I need to pull those socks up!
It was still an enjoyable day though and as always we’ve had a right laugh which is why I look forward to my weekends so much.
Thanks to a very generous £5 from Nick P and £2 from me the Nugget-O-Meter shot up to £246.
There’s still a great offer running if you fancy treating yourself to some new fishing gear, use the exclusive discount code AgainstMenandFish10 to get 10% off when you shop online at Somerset Angling
Also I still have copies of my book available from eBay here or Amazon here
And if you could spare five minutes to leave a nice review on Amazon, it would be very much appreciated.
Next up – Summerhayes
Coming soon – Lots more match reports
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